The former CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, had his account restricted by social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after the platform implied he “potentially violated the X Rules” by changing his profile name.”
X users could only access CZ’s account for a limited time on November 23 by selecting a button indicating that access was “temporarily restricted.” A settlement with United States authorities in which he pled guilty to a single felony charge entailed Zhao’s resignation as CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance on November 21.
Former Binance CEO Zhao speculated in a November 23 update that the restriction was an automated reaction to his profile name change from “CZ Binance” to “CZ BNB”:
“The X bot detection algo needs some work, [Elon Musk]. It doesn’t detect the bad bots, and wrongly targets the real humans.”
It is unknown whether CZ, a notoriously active social media platform user, will reduce the number of posts following his resignation as CEO of Binance.
Richard Teng, the global director of regional markets for the cryptocurrency exchange, has taken on the leadership position. However, compared to Zhao, Teng has a modest 231,600 followers on X.
The United States Department of Justice settled with Binance on November 21 for $4.3 billion, mandating CZ to pay $150 million in civil cases with regulators. In addition, the former CEO of Binance consented to a single felony charge about neglecting a functional anti-money laundering initiative.
